January 20th already!!-personal-

My goodness! Has a week gone by already?! Where did it go?! How can it be that

the days are so long, so very long that this morning feels at least two months

ago, but the weeks are so short? Answer me that, o riddle master. The days,

well, they are years, they are a whole lifetime and a blink. Maybe it’s because

we work eleven hour days, fairly long by most people’s standards, but it’s still

light outside so your mind at the end of the day is saying "take me outside

to play, look it’s still daytime, we have hours before bed!” while your body

is saying “nooo, not more, I’ve been out there all day, where were you then,

o off-with-the-fairies playmate of mine?!” And so it goes on. Sometimes one

wins, othertimes the other. Tonight, I think it shall be early to bed. But then,

I say that every night…

Yesterday was a Sunday, our day off, and I slept all day. Well, most of

it, and then went outside to see friends here kite-surfing. What a

wonderful sport that is! So silent! so fast! Whoooosh, like the wind.

Pulled along at great speeds while your feet are bound to skis or a

snowboard. They look so graceful, it looks so natural.

Have you ever tried surfing (in the sea)? I did once. All I remember is feeling

like I was inside a washing machine that was stuck on the spin cycle. Occasionally

allowed to gasp for air before another horrific onslaught of eddies removed my

sense of gravity and orientation entirely.

Kitesurfing is not that different. It’s wonderful, believe you me, when

the wind picks up the kite. It’s exhilarating when you get pulled along

faster than a skidoo, it’s predictable that you will soon be flat on

your face. Again. But the snow is soft and the day is long so I came

home a bit soggy, a little bruised, very windswept but with a big grin

across my face.

Last Sunday we went on a trip to visit a nearby emperor penguin colony. The chicks

were hip height but still fluffy. Bizarre proportions. The parents, so sleek and

slender didn’t fit in really. The entire bay was made up of strange formations

of snow and ice. Like stalactites or stalacmites (whichever are the ones that

grow upwards?). How did they form? The wind? The sea? The salt? The antarctic

katabatics? No, of course not. Penguin poo. What else?!

Without being too graphic, snow is white and reflects sunlight exceedingly well.

Anything darker than snow absorbs light and heat… and so melts the snow underneath.

At one point there were 10,000 penguins in this not overly-large bay so do the

mental imagery for yourself…. however it formed, the final effect was surreal.

And this is what you have: waist high formations of ice (or rather waste deep

melting spots, but anyway…), hip high baby penguins, adults of the same size

but looking out of place, and to top it all off, head height humans in dayglo

polar gear dangling multiple cameras within reaching distance of the lot. The

penguins seemed much less bothered by us than we, them. It was actually quite

sad too as the stronger chicks had already left for the sea and many of these

that were left will probably never make it. But they had such strong characters!

They huddled in creches of about 10 chicks per adult and made the most extraordinary

coo-ing call that is individual to each and the way that parents find their kids.

These parents aren’t returning now though,- it’s up to the chicks to shed their

fluff and seek out fish. It was all very odd and then we left.

But that’s not what people have been writing to me about. Jim asks: “How are the

living accomodations, food, people, wildlife, weather, your work etc.”, Vanessa

asks why I’m digging a big hole anyway, Steve, of course, wants to know about

sewage and fresh fruit (not related), Kirsten wants to hear about the ‘humdrum’,

Toni the community and when the ship will be returning and Chris, bless him, asked

about the view from my window.

The best news is that I now have a window! Until last week I was living

in a windowless room that wasn’t conducive to much except sleeping. Now,

Mandy and I have a wonderful bright north facing window that brings us

much joy every time we walk through the door. The view is of the sky and

the snow but also of a few buildings, a handline and the vehicles, all

lined up in a row (at night time). Bulldozers and snowcats and skidoos

and cranes. Lots and lots of big toys that we all love. This is the

biggest playground in the world! The weather has not been that cold,

hovering around freezing or a bit below. When it’s calm, it’s beautiful,

not more than a couple of warm layers needed. When the wind picks up

however, it can bite. But it’s a fresh bite. The air so clean. And the

water! the water we drink and wash in and cook with and make ice from

(!I know, odd!) tastes so…well…so pure! This week I’m on melt-tank

duty which means that at 6:45pm every evening I go out to the melt tank

with three others and shovel snow down some pipes for about 20-30

minutes until it is full. The same happens in the morning (a different

four people) and from this little act we have sufficient water for all

the washing machines, kitchen requirements, bathroom and drinking needs

for 40 people. Not bad, eh?! I love the showers. They are brief, but to

be bathed in fresh antarctic snowmelt….

From there I don’t feel I should move to sewage although I guess it’s

all plumbing….let it just be said that it either gets combusted or

poured into the ground to form a great big frozen mass. This is

hopefully changing in the future.

Fruit we do still have, most notably apples, pears and oranges. They

haven’t been frozen, just carefully wrapped in paper and stored in a

coolroom on both the ship and base. Stay amazingly fresh. I remember a

similar method happening in Nepal when the apples lasted for months if

they were buried deep in the earth where it was cool. More fruit will be

arriving on the ship in a couple of weeks so we are encouraged to help

ourselves to as much as we like which is fantastic.

The people and community are still a lot of fun. Everyone’s working

hard so it’s no more the party atmosphere that was on the ship…but

everyone wants to be working hard and working here so there’s a certain

joy and helpfulness that I don’t think you get on your average

construction site. Even the grumpy old gits, whose character it is to be

a grumpy old git, wink at the end of a grumble.

The ship has just left the Falklands again and is due back here in a couple of

weeks. After relief #2, she sails off for a science cruise for two weeks and then

picks those of us up who aren’t staying for the winter at the end of February.

I believe that I am due to be back in the land of roads, trees and nights mid-March

sometime.

I’m losing the plot, the flow has petered, my tired body is asking for rest and

the daylight outside can’t be hidden from my mind’s eye for much longer. For now,

I leave you for another week or so, to my daydreams, to the wonder of ice and

beautiful skies. Search out a star for me tonight.